Unlur (2002)

Unlur, the winner of the 2002 Unequal Forces Game Design Competition (sponsored by About Board Games, Abstract Games Magazine, and the Strategy Gaming Society), is an abstract strategy game played on a hexagon-shaped tessellation of hexagons with eight hexagons on each side. Unlur is also a game of unequal forces -- each player has a different objective. Black wins if 3 non-adjacent sides are connected, white if 2 opposite sides are. Thus black's goal is harder; to compensate, black will begin with some pieces already on the board. Initially, players do not yet have assigned colors; they take turns each placing a black piece on an empty hex. Either player may instead pass to become black (when they feel black has enough pieces on the board); the other player becomes white and places a white piece, and they continue alternating turns placing their own color. Black wins by forming a Y (connecting 3 non-adjacent sides) but loses by connecting 2 opposite sides without a Y. Likewise white wins by connecting 2 opposite sides but loses by forming a Y without connecting 2 opposite sides.